Greetings and happy Saturday. WineRelease.com is now 624 wineries strong!

I had my friend Cecilia from Ristow Vineyards over for abalone dinner the other night and she brought a bottle of 1999 Ristow Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (to be released July 1, 2002). Since we were having abalone that night we kept our drinking to white wines. Last night I had my friends Catherine Stefani (The Australian Premium Wine Collection), Joyce Rickenbaker (Henry Wine Group), Dave Rickenbaker and Scott Beckerley (both K&L Wines) over for dinner so we decanted and poured the 99 Ristow. Notes from the group include a nose of dusty casis and vanilla with a rich smooth heady mouthfeel of briary black fruit with a smooth finish of sweet vanilla and fresh blueberry fruit.

Yesterday I visited Hartford Family Wines in the Russian River area of Sonoma. They specialize in single-vineyard Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and old vine Zinfandel. Winemaker Mike Sullivan (recently named "Winemaker of the Year" by Restaurant Wines) and Tom Rozner took us through their new releases. All the wines were excellent but the stand out wines were the Zinfandels. If you are a Zinfandel fan, get your hands on these limited production wines (three of their four zinfandels hover around 300 cases per year). You won't be disappointed. I will update their wine release dates soon. In the meantime, visit their web site for more information.

Bressler VineyardsStarting with the 2000 harvest, Bressler Vineyards is a small (five acre) vineyard planted to Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The winery management team of Jim Abreu (Abreu Vineyards and Vineyard Management) and Mia Klien (owner of Selene Wines and consulting winemaker for Araujo and Dalla Valle) should produce stellar wines.
http://www.bresslervineyards.com

Detert Family Vineyards2000 Cabernet Franc will be Detert Family Vineyards first release. The Detert Family Vineyard is located on the Oakville bench at the base of the Mayacamas range and has produced grapes for over 50 years. The majority of the vineyard was replanted in the 1970s and 1980s and is dominated by Cabernet Franc. Two small sections, totaling just over an acre, are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet Franc was a component of the early Opus One wines and has been a mainstay of Robert Mondavi’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon for decades. Since the winery is small with limited production, their wine is only available via mailing list and through their website.
http://www.detert.com/How_to_buy.htm

June's recommended web site to visit:

LocalWineEvents.comTo find out what wine events are going on in your area, visit LocalWineEvents where over 12,000 events have been posted since July 2000.

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